WRI Insights

President Obama [made it abundantly clear](http://www.wri.org/news/2013/02/statement-wri-response-state-union) during the State of the Union address last night that he will direct his Administration to take on climate change. The president reiterated the urgency for action, citing climate impacts we’re already seeing like [record high temperatures](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/01/numbers-hottest-year-record), heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods. “We can choose to believe that [Superstorm Sandy](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/11/listening-hurricane-sandy-climate-change-here), and the most severe drought in decades, and the worst wildfires some states have ever seen were all just a freak coincidence,” he said. “Or we can choose to believe in the overwhelming judgment of science--and act before it’s too late.”

Tonight, President Obama will address the nation at the State of the Union, laying out his priorities for his second term. Climate change is expected to be high on the list, especially following the Inauguration when the president [declared](http://www.wri.org/news/2013/01/statement-president-obama-commits-climate-change-action-second-inaugural-address) that a failure to respond would "betray our children and future generations."

I spent the [recent U.N. climate negotiations](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/12/reflections-cop-18-doha-negotiators-made-only-incremental-progress) in Doha trying to reconcile two injustices. The first is captured by Nicholas Stern’s [“brutal arithmetic.”](http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/04/lord-stern-developing-countries-deeper-emissions-cuts) This is the simple, unavoidable fact that bold greenhouse gas emissions reductions will be needed from *all* countries to hold global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, thus preventing climate change’s most dangerous impacts. Developing nations, many of which are battling crippling poverty and inequality at home, are being told that the traditional, high-carbon pathway to prosperity is off-limits, and that they, too, will need to embrace aggressive mitigation actions. This is a glaring injustice – the product of two decades of missed opportunities in the [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)](http://unfccc.int/2860.php), inadequate domestic action in industrialized countries, and substantial geopolitical changes in major emerging economies.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago, I was struck by how often the issue of water risk was raised by business executives. As the global economic turmoil is receding, many CEOs and global leaders are turning to other threats—and water is high on the list. For the second year in a row, water crises were named among the [top four global risks](http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-2013-eighth-edition) at the WEF.

WRI just released a new report that answers the important question: Is the United States on track to meet its climate change commitments?

As we’ve seen recently with [Hurricane Sandy](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/11/listening-hurricane-sandy-climate-change-here), [epic drought](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/07/science-behind-us-drought), and [wildfires](http://insights.wri.org/news/2012/07/colorado-forest-fires-and-climate-connection), climate change visibly impacts lives and livelihoods throughout the United States. Global warming’s effects extend beyond people, wildlife, and ecosystems, though: They’re threatening America’s energy infrastructure.

City leaders face incredible pressure to deliver sustainable transportation. Cities now account for more than half of the world’s population—by 2050, they will hold 75 percent of us. These people--[increasingly](http://www.reuters.com/middle-class-infographic) from the middle class--will need ways to commute to work, travel, and carry out their livelihoods.

In a little more than one generation—by the time your grade-schoolers will be seeing their own kids off to school—our planet will be home to 9 billion people. This will create [an unprecedented demand](http://www.wri.org/blog/2013/01/4-grand-challenges-energy-food-and-water) for water, food, and energy--and stress the supporting infrastructure required for life in the 21st century. How are we to meet this demand while respecting planetary boundaries? And importantly, how will we pay for it?

The world is on track to become a very different place in the next two decades. Per capita income levels are rising, the global middle class is expanding, and the population is set to hit 8.3 billion people by 2030. At the same time, urbanization is happening at an accelerated pace—the volume of urban construction over the next 40 years [could equal](http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/national-intelligence-council-global-trends) that which has occurred throughout history to date.

Water is [very complicated](http://www.wri.org/blog/2012/07/us-drought-demonstrates-complexity-severity-water-risk). It’s affected by large-scale issues like climate change and globalization. International commerce moves virtual water (the water it takes to grow or produce a product) from farms in Brazil to grocery stores in China and Egypt.